Quote: Noted marijuana enthusiast Bill Maher had little patience on Real Time on Friday for former Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s (D-RI) campaign against legalizing the drug.

“It just seems so un-Kennedy like to be against what I said a couple of weeks ago was the new gay marriage,” Maher told Kennedy in a one-on-one debate. “It is the next civil rights movement.”

Sat Jun 15, 2013 9:12 pm

Sage FrancisSelf Fighteous

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 21671

I thought it was weird how Maher equated marijuana laws to civil rights.

I thought it was weird how Patrick Kennedy voiced the opinion of the 1950's.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:31 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

I don't think it's strange to parallel the legalization of marijuana with civil rights, especially when you consider the racist origins of its criminalization in the first place. Government regulation of a natural substance, something that anyone with the know-how can grow in their backyard (or basement), also strikes me as an infringement of a civil liberty. In other words, just as the government should have no right to tell us who we can love and marry, they should have no right to tell us what manner of plantlife we can cultivate and consume.

Having written that, it seems more like an apples and oranges situation, but the fact remains that the bottom line of the discussion is government interference.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:17 am

T-Wrexp00ny tang

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 6410
Location: Detroit, Michigan

If Monsanto had seeds to sell, maybe the Unites States Of The Fortune 500 would legalize it...

**grumble, grumble**

Sun Jun 16, 2013 12:25 pm

Limbs

Joined: 04 Feb 2011
Posts: 977

I'd agree if he was making a larger point about the war on drugs... but I don't think he is... It's coming off to me like he is comparing his struggle to smoke pot to people's struggle to vote and/or be treated like people.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:34 pm

Limbs

Joined: 04 Feb 2011
Posts: 977

And yea, I don't know what this Kennedy dude is on.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:35 pm

mancabbage

Joined: 29 Jun 2005
Posts: 9273
Location: london

you guys need to hurry up and legalise all over the shop. The UK won't do shit whilst we're run by a forehead made out of ham, but if daddy usa does we might have a chance to break away from the mary whitehouse bullshit after 2015.

I'm even allowed to import dissolved human Asian hair in the form of l-cysteine and put it in the bread I bake.

Just because it becomes a right, it doesn't make it right.

Do you want think kind of anarchy in your food chain just so you can cop a buzz?

What 'bout the kids?

theres a difference though weed grows naturally most of the stuff you just listed is created in a lab synthetically right?

Sun Jun 16, 2013 6:35 pm

corporateslave

Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1110
Location: Lawrence, KS

Captiv8 wrote: I don't think it's strange to parallel the legalization of marijuana with civil rights, especially when you consider the racist origins of its criminalization in the first place. Government regulation of a natural substance, something that anyone with the know-how can grow in their backyard (or basement), also strikes me as an infringement of a civil liberty. In other words, just as the government should have no right to tell us who we can love and marry, they should have no right to tell us what manner of plantlife we can cultivate and consume.

Having written that, it seems more like an apples and oranges situation, but the fact remains that the bottom line of the discussion is government interference.

Very true. My first thought was that I just read an article today about how blacks are arrested for marijuana possession at a much higher rate than whites, even though it's estimated that both demographics are similar in the percentage of people that use it. In some areas a black person is 30 times more likely to be busted for pot than a white person. They are using marijuana laws to unfairly target minorities, so in a slightly abstract sense it is a civil rights issue.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 6:46 pm

anomalyLoserface

Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 2625
Location: DFW, TX

If only people would realize pot is stupid and everyone would stop smoking the shit.

We wouldn't be where we're at now.

Why can't everyone just cop a good coffee buzz and go about their day happy.

Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:27 pm

anomalyLoserface

Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 2625
Location: DFW, TX

Whats kind of hilarious is i JUST logged into Vine for the first time today and saw all the Sage Vines about the death of the coffeepot and Tollbooth Girl.

Mere coincidence or psychic phenomenon?

Sun Jun 16, 2013 10:40 pm

T-Wrexp00ny tang

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 6410
Location: Detroit, Michigan

corporateslave wrote: They are using marijuana laws to unfairly target minorities, so in a slightly abstract sense it is a civil rights issue.